ELECTORS turned out en masse at The Bush Hotel on Thursday last week to debate the hot topics of the day at the annual town meeting.

The evening began with a welcome from the Mayor of Farnham, Mike Hodge, and presentations by councillors on the council’s achievements over the past 12 months.

This was followed by a lively question and answer session, with electors grilling elected representatives on key issues ranging from Brightwells to air quality.

The Bourne resident Abigail McKern opened the Q&A session, requesting Farnham Town Council’s support in recovering a time capsule buried beneath the soon-to-be demolished Redgrave Theatre in the 1970s.

Responding, the mayor read out an email from Waverley leader Julia Potts confirming the borough council’s commitment to recover the capsule and asking for assistance locating it.

Next, Celia Sandars queried what was being done to mitigate the impact of the Brightwells construction on Farnham town centre - to which town council leader Carole Cockburn confessed the impact will “be awful” but vowed to keep people informed.

Stephen Cochrane queried the lack of a visible police presence in the town and rise in anti-social behaviour resulting from cutbacks to Surrey’s street lighting, with Mrs Cockburn confirming “it is something we should look at as a town council”.

Geoff Wallis, chairman of the Hale Chapels Trust, asked for reassurance that the chapels would not be demolished following the recently-reported failed bid for lottery funding - to which the council leader promised “nothing will happen without consultation”.

Peter Wilkinson raised the topic of air quality and Waverley’s botched 2016 annual air quality status report, asking if reliable data was yet available, particularly for the Royal Deer crossroads.

Responding, Mrs Cockburn said the town council is “fully aware of the issue” and is “pushing all the time” for the correct data.

John Slater, of the Farnham Society and a member of the newly formed Farnham Air Quality Working Group, also reported a “very significant change in the attitude of Waverley officers”, and said the borough council is now publishing up-to-date air quality data on its website monthly - adding “in previous years it was years before new data was published”.

He added now was the time to take action on the issue, commenting that “until Farnham’s traffic issues are resolved the problem will not get better”.